AT&T and Verizon LG G2 now supported by Loki flashing tool

In yet another episode of circumventing the restrictions imposed by manufacturers and carriers, developer Dan Rosenberg pushed an update to his Loki tool that adds support for the LG G2 from AT&T and Verizon. This allows Loki to bypass the locked bootloader and flash custom kernels and recoveries, which should eventually pave the way for the creation of custom ROMs for the device.

AT&T and Verizon have been notorious for their hard stance on locked bootloaders which have prevented developers and modders from doing anything fancy with the device. Loki was then developed as an attempt to get past these bootloaders specifically on certain Samsung and LG devices. Joining that roster today, which includes the Galaxy S 4 and the Galaxy Stellar, is LG's latest flagship smartphone, the G2.

With a name befitting its methods, Loki tricks the stock bootloader into validating a custom kernel. Using the loki_patch tool, a developer would create an .lok image that can be flashed to the device's recovery or boot partition using loki_flash. From then on, it would be possible for developers to create custom ROMs to run on the device. The images created are very device-specific, though, so it will only work on specific devices, specifically those that have an aboot partition.

Loki requires root privileges to work so devices such as the G2 should be rooted first. Unfortunately, the tool is pretty much made for developers only, so end-users will just have to wait for easier versions of the tool or whole custom ROMs to arrive.